Spanish has a grammatical marker used with persons and pets. It is the word a and is always used before direct objects with no equivalent in English. Let us explore its function.
The sentence " I see my brother" is Veo a mi hermano in Spanish. The word a is used because the direct object is a person. It can also be used with pets such as in the sentence I don't see my cat, which is No veo a mi gato. If the animal is not a pet, no grammatical marker is used. The sentence I see three elephants is Veo tres elefantes.
The grammatical marker a is also used with the pronouns alguien (someone) and nadie (no one). Examples include No veo a nadie (I don't see anyone) and Tienes que decirle a alguien (You have to tell someone).
The personal a of Spanish is a grammatical marker that is used before direct objects. It is for people and pets. In other Romance languages such as French, Italian and Portuguese, it is not used. The grammatical marker is truly unique.
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